What's the volume of 1.5& x 100' cotton Jacket rubber lined fire hose?
Ever heard the word hydroplaning before? That's exactly what happened. All it takes is a fraction of an inch of moisture on the road (or whatever surface) for tires to become next to useless. PLUS the fact you were on a bridge. The only word worse than those two 4 letter words (rain snow) is that 3 letter wordICE. You may have come across a patch of ice, in which case ANY tire without studs will be rendered useless - especially a slick or semi-slick tread tire. Ice can does form on bridges quicker than anywhere else. Fact of life because cold air from underneath meets warm air and/or rain from above before ya know it - black ice. You can't even see it. There are only two solutions to your problem. 1) Slow down considerably. 2) Stop, get off the bike walk it across the bridge. What makes me so sure? Only a couple of million miles driving a tractor-trailer with no tickets no wrecks. Now retired avid cyclist. When driving through rain or snow, I would slow down considerably. On ice - I'd just get off the highway - period. Wait for the salt trucks snow plows to do their job. My guess would be you hit a spot where some type of grease or oil mixed in with water or you hit a spot of black ice.
Panic stopping in slippery conditions with your front, you are asking for trouble. The minute they locked, it probably slipped on the wood. Watch a few tour de frances in the rain. You see the same thing. (not that these guys can't handle it, just unexpected slippery conditions + speed will cause a fall). You were probably in road mode. They way you descend (on a MTB), is to shift your weight back, stand a bit off the seat, feather or flutter your rear brakes first, then you can use your fronts (but release if you feel locking). You can actually steer using your rear brakes in locking mode. A road bike, the same thing applies (except getting off the seat). Everyone falls. It takes experience to know when to know it might happen. Everyone jams on the front brake at some time at the wrong time. Update: Oh, when it is really slick, I unclip and put both my feet out and foot pedal the bike (on my road bike) That way the bike can fall and I am still under control, the bike falls but I don't. Yes, the bike can pull you down, but big deal, going like 10 mph.
Slick tires actually give you your best chance of stopping on a smooth surface, even in the wet. The front brake has a lot more stopping power than the rear one, so that isn't it either. You can't hydroplane on a bicycle. The tires are too narrow for the speeds you can achieve to allow hydroplaning. The problem is that you were going too fast for the conditions in the first place. When it's wet like that, you just have to slow down a lot earlier. Wet wood is very slippery. Ice is about the only thing I can think of that's worse. You might have been well advised to walk your bike across the bridge when it is wet.
All of the above. Maybe replace drop with Pressure. PSI.
You exceeded the grip capability of your front tire, simple as that. Braking is one friction, turning is another, when you combined the two, your tire's grip let go. Look into improving your rear braking and minimizing this risk in the future with better braking capabilities to keep you out of this kind of situation. Some tires work better in the wet than others and your tire may not work well in the wet but anything would have trouble on wet wood. Pity you had to find this out in a touchy situation, better to explore the handling limits of your bike in non critical situations.
